Kidding is in full force

The cold weather keeps things interesting! At this point I'm grateful for my sparkling milkroom as it gives us a little hideaway to warm up from working out in the main barn. Despite the cold, our does have been troopers, huddling under heat lamps, enduring shots and supplements and tolerating freezing water buckets. I think Elina gave me the stink-eye from the kidding stall as I sat watching her on 'goat-tv' from the warmth of my living room. 

Masquerade aka "Massey" was first of the weekend. She maintained her streak of 100% doe kids- to date she has never had a buckling! Two large, thriving girls who are wide and strong. She did, however, have a third doe kid who was stillborn and delivered upside down and with a little difficulty, it appeared as though the umbilical cord had detached a few days prior. Massey is doing fine, we are watching her closely and giving her antibiotics and plenty of treats to keep her healthy. 

Next up were Elina and Claire. Elina is stubborn as hell and kind of sneaky with her babies. This year, likely due to the cold, she was having a bit of a slow labor and with more difficulty than there should have been, she delivered a single buck kid. Generally we keep bucks with some of the dams to make life a bit easier but with the cold and his weakness after the struggle to deliver him, we brought him in to hand raise him. 

Claire rounded out the day with a surprise. She was looking quite rotund, so I was expecting twins, quite honestly I was grateful the breeding even took after the 'assault' and fighting to get her successfully bred! She settled down and pushed like a pro, after a bit of repositioning out tumbled a tiny little mini goat. I lifted it off the ground, cleared off his face as he flailed around and hollered and Rog and I looked at one another and said "What the hell is that?????" 

The average kid is about 7 lbs, this thing fit in one hand. We later weighed him and found that he tipped the scales at around 2 3/4 lbs. a few short moments later Claire delivered a normal sized two toned female and then a whopping large cou bland buck. This was weird on many levels as most first fresheners don't carry triplets, and most goats deliver large-medium-small, not the opposite. 

The little guy has a slew of names, Nugget, Peanut, Half-Pint. He has tendons contractures in his front legs and still working on walking correctly but otherwise is as healthy as the others. His size makes him cuter, as does scooting around with his butt in the air, tail-wagging furiously. 

Next weekend will be busier yet, expectant mommas include Macy, May, Mona Lisa, Charlotte and Emilene, who is as big as a house! I certainly hope the warmer weather promise holds true, right now we are being graced with 3-5 inches of ice pellets and snow pelting our windows and drifting deeply over the frequently plowed disaster of a driveway that plagues our home.